


Precious

by Eireann



Category: The Last Kingdom (TV)
Genre: F/M, Tragic Romance
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-02-02
Updated: 2018-02-02
Packaged: 2019-03-12 19:02:55
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 996
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/13553637
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Eireann/pseuds/Eireann
Summary: AEthelflaed believes that Uhtred will help Erik save her from her destiny... but does Erik?





	Precious

**Author's Note:**

  * For [Calleva](https://archiveofourown.org/users/Calleva/gifts).



> The Last Kingdom is copyrighted to Carnival Film and Television. No infringement is intended and no money made.

“She has a price beyond which I cannot go.  I _will_ not go.”

He stood there in the midst of our warriors, this Æthelred, this popinjay, this preening princeling, and spoke of what he could not and _would_ not pay for his wife.

His wife ... my Æthelflaed.

Daughter of a king, wife of a king.  For sure she is of Alfred’s blood, for even we have learned that the little ruler of Wessex is a man to reckon with; frail he may be in body, but his will is steel, and his courage no man could doubt.  And Æthelflaed is but a woman, and therefore frail, but her spirit is a sword of a steel to equal her father’s. 

What draws the veil from across a man’s eyes, so that suddenly he sees that _a_ woman is _the_ woman?  I felt nothing for her when I rode into Beamfleot with her on my saddlebow, save the satisfaction that my plan had worked.  She was a wife and a hostage, of royal blood; she would buy us the fleet and the warriors with which Sigefrid and I would destroy her father and his kingdom.  It was true that I thought her handsome enough, but I have seen others of greater beauty; seen, and bedded, and forgotten them.

All thanks to that fool of a husband of hers.  What man of any sense takes a woman he values into enemy territory?  If she had stayed safe at home we could never have come near her, but now here she is, fronting me across the stable in which she is a prisoner, and everything I have ever held dear is nothing beside her.

Sigefrid scoffed at her pale beauty.  But then, he has always preferred women with more meat on them.

I did not blame her for her pallor.  She was alone and defenceless, among the barbarians.  But despite the fear she must have felt, she held her head high and did not weep; and for that I admired her.  Courage is always to be admired, in man or in woman.

During the days of her captivity, she has borne herself with the same queenliness.  I do not doubt that she knows full well the danger and indignity of her situation; Sigefrid has his gaze set upon the ransom we demanded for her, and will do nothing that would reduce her value, though he was not above shutting one eye when he saw that I was attracted to her.  Doubtless it amuses him greatly to think of the proud princess of Wessex being humped in the straw by a Viking warlord whether she would or no. 

My brother’s temper is quick, but I trust the prospect of wealth almost beyond imagining will be sufficient to rein it in, though it was almost more than I could bear to listen to the threats he made to Uhtred of what he would cause to be done to her if the ransom were not forthcoming.  There is one other, though, whose command of himself I trust less.  That boar Haesten watches her with lust, and though he is useful to us I do not like him.  His desire for gold and silver is no less than Sigefrid’s, of course, but I am in little doubt that should opportunity offer, he would like nothing better than to lay Æthelflaed on her back and rut on her.

_On her back..._ The memory haunts me, and as she stares back at me I see the liquid darkness of her eyes lit again by the silver moon.  Her slender body, moon-pale and lovely under the stars....  She was so slight, supple like a willow-wand, and though desire rode me I reined it in; she was no slave, to be humped without thought and tossed aside.  But for all my gentleness, I felt the fear in her.  What manner of fool was that husband of hers, to spoil his queen for the joys of the marriage-bed?

Still, by the time I brought her back to the fortress she had learned what pleasure a man can give a maid, if the man be other than a fool and a knave without the wit to value what he has.  My Æthelflaed, twisting and crying out under me, urging me on; to what, I think even now she did not know, but presently she discovered it in full measure...

I must give her up.

I cannot.

So straight she stands, as erect and as lovely as a larch in the springtime.  Her face is full of faith – in me, and in Uhtred, who is her father’s sworn man, and therefore sworn to return her to Æthelred of Mercia.

Her gaze is like Uhtred’s.  They share the straight stare of a warrior, and she believes in him.  I know already that he is a man of honour; will he cast it aside to help a woman to dishonour her Christian marriage vows, shame her husband and her father, and flee into shame and danger with an enemy and a Dane whom he hardly knows?

I too have been a man of honour.  I love my brother Sigefrid, but even he cannot save me from this sweet insanity.  Æthelflaed, my soul, my fate, my Freyja beneath the moon.

I have brought parchment and a pen.  I hand them to her, and watch her write hastily.  There is not room for many words.

Uhtred knows what her ransom will accomplish if it is paid – and Alfred of Wessex loves his daughter.  That love will be the end of him, and the end of his kingdom. 

Does his sworn Viking ealdorman value his given word more than the weal of Wessex and the love of a woman for an enemy?

Soon we will find out.  And on that discovery will hang not only the fate of Æthelflaed and Erik, but of maybe the whole long struggle for the Last Kingdom.

_Wyrd bið ful aræd._

**Author's Note:**

> If you've enjoyed this, please leave a review!


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